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Monday, April 13, 2015

Interview with educator and writer D.A. Russell

D.A. Russell is here today to talk about and give us a glimpse into his book, Lifting the Curtain: The Disgrace We Call Urban High School Education,
2nd Edition.

Bio:

D. A.
Russell has spent the last ten years as a math teacher in one of the urban high
schools that is the subject of Lifting
the Curtain. He is an honors graduate of Dartmouth College, and has his
master’s degree from Simon School, where he was valedictorian of his class.
Russell is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He has two children that he treasures,
and four grandchildren. His son is a police officer who served in the US Army
in Afghanistan, earning a Bronze Star for valor. His daughter is a lawyer and
his most passionate fan and honorary literary agent. Russell has a passion for
children that dominates his life. He has taught and coached children for
decades. Few things are more important in Russell’s view than to cherish the children
who are our real treasures in this world.

He is a
contributor for education matters to the Huffington Post, and runs a personal
blog at: LiftingTheCurtainOnEducation.wordpress.com dedicated to letting
teachers’ voices be heard in the real problems with education.

Welcome, D.A. Please tell us about
your current release.

Lifting the Curtain is the result of three years of
research, including interviews with hundreds of teachers and students, to
identify the real issues that have
stolen a good education from a generation of children. Today’s discussion of a
failed education system always seems to be based upon the false mantra that
education is failing because of “…bad funding, bad unions, bad children, and
bad teachers.” From outside the classroom it certainly can appear that way. Only
if we lift the curtain and let people see beyond the school entryway is there
hope of real change.

LTC was
written from what both Kirkus and Clarion praise as “…an impassioned look at
the shortcomings of public education, from the perspective of an inner-city
high school teacher,” and as Margo Dill cited in her review “…his passion for
getting to the root of the problem and helping teenagers is all over these
pages.” It includes dozens of passages written by teachers nationwide, includes
the survey results from three years of research, and benefits from thousands of
posts and emails from teachers and parents.

What inspired you to write this book?

Four years
ago I was listening to my favorite talk show on Boston radio when one of the
hosts made a joke about the latest fiasco in education: “…to fix education,
just shoot all the teachers.” A light bulb went on for me. I realized that if
someone that insightful and intelligent could miss what is really happening in
schools, then we would never be able to fix education. I started designing the
research project, and writing the book that very night.

Below are summaries from a few of the
chapters in the book:

Systemic Failure
#7: The untouchables – Parents and Teacher Unions

The problem with
discussing the contribution of these two groups to systemic failures in
education is that they are untouchable in any practical manner. It is hard to
see what can be done to directly (there are indirect options) influence the
minority of parents whose actions (or inaction) hurt the education of their own
children. And the difficulties with changing union approaches to education are
well known, and would be a topic that could fill three more books.

Systemic Failure
#8: Rewards unrelated to performance

The final systemic
failure in education is that the vital cause-and-effect relationship between an
employee’s rewards, and their performance, does not exist for teachers. Worse,
the only significant differentiator in pay between two teachers in the same
position is that one might be receiving special assignments (coaching, club
leaders, etc.) because of blatant cronyism in administration’s assignment of
those duties.

The solution – Surprise! There is one, and
it is not more money!

The final chapter
in Lifting the Curtain is a set of twelve
practical and achievable solutions to the systemic failure of urban education.
All will be strongly contested by those with vested interests in the current
system, and who profit from the terrible education we are providing our
children. Expect loud opposition from bureaucrats whose jobs depend upon
churning out ever more useless and harmful mandates, the "clique" of
cronies who abuse the system, and a minority of parents who want to just see
Johnny "pass" whether or not he actually learns anything.

And the surprise of all is that these initiatives
will reduce education costs rather than just throw more money at the failed
policies that have destroyed urban education for our children.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's
your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find
time to write?

I am simply a
classroom high school math teacher, with a passion for children, who is deeply
frustrated about how we have failed today’s school children. I was in high tech
management for years until 9/11 destroyed my business. Rather than retire, I
made the decision to chase a dream I had put aside decades earlier to become a
teacher. I wish I had been a teacher from day one!

Other than
that, I have two children, and four granddaughters. I’m a Dartmouth honors
graduate, master’s degree from the Simon School, a decorated Vietnam vet, and a
FIFA gold medalist as goalie for the 2000 world champion over-50 soccer team.

What would you say is your interesting
writing quirk?

Sleeplessness!
I am cursed by one of those brains (at least the three remaining functioning
marbles) that seems to come up with the most powerful ideas and concepts during
the night. I wake up with an idea and simply have to write it down. I started
with a pad of paper at bedside, but that was a complete fail – I’d wake in the
morning to find a line something like “…haxe Grenoble dg the sneeasm!!!!!” It’s
very frustrating knowing you lost out on a five-exclamation idea based upon
something called a sneeasm.

So I finally
gave in and started to get up and head to the computer. I have a folder on my
desktop called “Ideas in the night.” It has worked well, and I’ve not had a
single sneeasm since I started with it.

Anything additional you want to share
with the readers?

By far the
most valuable thing I can share with new authors is that there are far
more scammers than helpers out there ready to promise you fame and fortune,
take your money, and deliver nothing.

I spent a
great deal of time looking at publishing and marketing options. My first
publisher (for a fiction book I wrote a few years ago) seemed good in all
regards, yet turned out to be far from that. I recall getting a phone call from
an “excited” agent of the company who felt, after reading my book, that it was
so good he wanted to include it in a national advertisement for just $800.
There were only two problems with the offer. First of all, I had not sent in
the text of the book yet, so his ability to read a book that did not exist was
somewhat suspect. Second, I managed to find prior examples of the ad, and
discovered they were completely about promoting their publishing and marketing
services to new authors, and my inclusion was a ½ inch cover thumbnail at the
bottom of the ad along with a dozen other covers.

There are so
many contests you can enter that I had to route them to my junk mail filter
after a while.

Finally, scam
marketers and publicists are all over the web. Caveat emptor is the word of the
day. Many simply mass email a précis you write to dozens of mistargeted sites.
The whole process takes them about five minutes, and has nothing to do with the
customization and “personal contacts” that were promised.

Now, cynicism
aside, there really are good helpers and sites out there! They are just hard to
find, and limited. It has taken me 3-4 years to find a handful of excellent
ones. You can find them too – just don’t buy the snake oil.

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About Me

I'm a NH native and love New England. I love writing about the region, exploring it on foot, on my bicycle, and in my car. There are so many small communities and fun and interesting people in this area, that I could be here a lifetime and not do all it is I want to do. :)

I'm a moderator at The Writer's Chatroom that hosts live chats with guest authors on Sunday nights 7-9PM EST. Join the e-mail list to get notifications of upcoming guests, then stop in and join the conversation!